Critically acclaimed director Sam Pollard will be honored by Black Public Media, according to a new report by Deadline.
At the upcoming PitchBlack Awards scheduled to be held at the Stanley H. Kantor Penthouse of Manhattan’s Lincoln Center on April 25, Pollard will be given the BPM Trailblazer Award for his work.
With the latest honor, the director will join filmmakers Orlando Bagwell, Yoruba Richen, Marco Williams, Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson. Through the award, Pollard’s achievements in media and his influence on next-generation filmmakers will be celebrated.
Special screenings of his work and a conversation with Pollard will be part of his honors.
“Sam [Pollard] has continuously brought to life urgent Black stories that need to be seen and studied, crafting films that preserve the history and beauty of so many aspects of American culture,” said the executive director of the non-profit Black Public Media, Leslie Fields-Cruz, per a statement. “He has also helped to prepare a new wave of truly talented storytellers. It’s time for all of us to give him the flowers he deserves.”
Born in Harlem, Pollard studied media at Baruch College, graduating in 1973. Working under the mentorship of Victor Kanefsky, George Bowers and St. Clair Bourne, he often collaborated with filmmaker Spike Lee, starting with the 1990 film “Mo’ Better Blues,” a movie about a fictional jazz player.
During that same year, he released his first work as director with “Eyes on the Prize.” The 14-episode documentary series covered the history of the 20th-century civil rights movement in the U.S. and featured numerous directors.
Pollard himself directed two episodes that focused on the Chicago Freedom Movement, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, students at Howard University and the National Black Political Convention.
Other works by Pollard include “Mr. Soul!,” a documentary about Ellis Haizlip who hosted the music-and-talk program SOUL!, as well as “MLK/FBI.”
Doc Powerhouse Sam Pollard To Receive Black Public Media’s Trailblazer Award: “Time To Give Him The Flowers He Deserves” https://t.co/TivTFdxt9J
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) December 23, 2023
Released in 2020, the documentary explores the investigation of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as F.B.I. officials, including J. Edgar Hoover, targeted him. Featuring archival footage, “MLK/FBI” covered the attempts by the F.B.I. to tarnish the reputation of Dr. King Jr. in the civil rights movement.
For his work with Spike Lee on the documentary “4 Litte Girls,” Pollard has previously been nominated for an Academy Award.
In 2020, he became the first person to receive the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement Award and won the title of best documentary at the San Diego International Film Festival.
Pollard also previously won an Emmy award for his film, “By The People: The Election of Barack Obama.”
Throughout his career, he’s been praised for his depiction of the Black American experience in his work.
“From his collaborations with St. Clair Bourne, Henry Hampton, and Spike Lee to his own documentaries, his works explore complicated American figures and the extended aftershocks of racial inequality with clear-eyed resolve, inspired in their historical and moral urgency and notable for their journalistic thoroughness and cogent structure,” wrote the Film at Lincoln Center in their tribute to the director.
